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Thursday, March 07, 2013

Systematic sexual and physical abuse in monastery boarding school in the Archdiocese of Munich in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

A new report shows that monks in Ettal used violence and sexual assault systematically. Until the eighties, they were part of the pedagogical repertoire.

In the investigation into the abuse cases of the boarders at the Benedictine Abbey of Ettal, new results show that the monks have used systematic violence. According to experts' report , there was an oppressive system using violence and sexual abuse in the school.

Violence had been "specifically used as an educational tool," writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung , citing a study report, which the Bavarian monastery itself had commissioned. Sexual assault of the monks were part of this system of violence. The investigation report of the social science institute IPP will be presented on Thursday in Munich.

Three years ago, it was learned for the first time that the monks had in Ettal sexually abused numerous students, among other things. In the report it is now stated that the monks had used "selective and painful punishment of the weak performance" of the students.

The ferocity of the violence leaves no other conclusion, "as the perpetrators either lost control of their emotions or acted on the basis of sadistic motivation". The sexual assaults were a specific variant of the violence. The teachers could not properly fill their role, the clergy were totally inadequately qualified for their educational activity.